NOTE: parents' and children's Charter rights and freedoms, and the Principles of Fundamental Justice seem to be ignored in these laws. The laws do not recognize the long record of harm caused by government intervention in families, and so there is no 'balancing' of rights or risks.

The percentage of mothers who had done paid work or looked for work, on an average day, increased from 36% in 1986 to 47% in 2015. In contrast, this proportion decreased for fathers, from 69% in 1986 to 64% in 2015." - partnered parents with children 12 and under

The federal government is again claiming that it funds "HIGH QUALITY" early learning and child care. However the evidence from studies of daycare quality conducted by daycare advocates, and from peer-reviewed empirical studies shows that the majority of licensed daycare in Canada is of "minimal to mediocre" quality, not high quality. Inadequate staff:child ratios are the primary reason for inadequate quality. The ratio problem cannot be fixed by unionization, higher wages, or more training.

Non-parental child care expenses incurred so parents can "work" can be deducted for children age 0-15. Expenses include 'camps' and boarding school. This case broadens what can be called 'child care' and affirms parents right to determine the form of child care based on children's needs.

It is not for the state to decide who minds the Appellant's children as long as the expenses claimed are reasonable.

The taxpayer is responsible for choosing...the child care services he or she wishes to use; the taxpayer makes this choice on the basis of the child's needs, and this choice is an exercise of parental discretion.

A parent alone has the right to decide when a child 12 or older should stay home alone.

The case raises government violation of the child's Charter right to security of person. Daycare regulations are inadequate to provide "adequate" care to the majority of children according to peer-reviewed empirical research on staff:child ratios and group size, and according to research that states the majority of licensed daycare in Canada is of minimal to mediocre quality.

July 2018 - WORSENING GOVERNMENT DISCRIMINATION AGAINST PARENTS AND CHILDREN

The agreements for funding to each province and territory specify that "areas of investment" be limited to government-regulated settings. This discriminatory policy violates Charter values of personal autonomy, equality, liberty, and security of person.

The discriminatory policy also contradicts the empirical evidence: low enrollment in regulated daycare, parental preference for parental child care, inadequate quality in the majority of licensed daycare; worsened child outcomes in group care for health, emotional and physical well-being and academic performance; high cost of group care, inadequate staffing and training; not enough people wanting these jobs, etc

June 2018: Conflict of G7 Gender Equity Interest? Why is motherhood unmentionable?
Canada's G7 Gender Equity Council wants more money for daycare. Maya Roy, CEO of Canada's YWCA is on the Council. The Y is the biggest provider of daycare "spaces" in Canada. No mention of being a "mother" in any of the Council bios.

April 2018 article by former KidsFirst President, Beverley Smith, in Policy Options, the magazine of the Institute for Research on Public Policy: All child care should be valued and funded. Bev's successful complaint to the UN in 1997 launched the Federal Finance Committee's Sub-Committee on Tax Equity for Families With Dependent Children. Their Final Report in 1999 called for the government to be neutral regarding child care preferences. Report available here.

DO UBC PROFESSORS MISREPRESENT PEER-REVIEWED RESEARCH FINDINGS OF NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF DAYCARE?

January 9, 2008 email from Dr Paul Kershaw of UBC's HELP to Provincial Child Care Council and head of Gen Squeeze lobby group funded by UBC.
Kershaw opposes Dr Jay Belsky's policy suggestion that parents not be financially coerced into using daycare centres. Belsky was a researcher with the NICHD Child Care Effects Study which showed that daycare centre care produces lasting negative behavioural outcomes for children.

Our government thinks maternal child care is bad for women and children and the economy. Our leaders want to "GET MOTHERS BACK TO WORK" and get our children into full time LICENSED DAYCARE so we can be "PRODUCTIVE" in the name of "GENDER EQUITY."

August 2017: Cardus op-ed by Helen Ward:
The Daycare Lobby's Misogyny. Regarding government and corporate schemes to bully mothers away from our kids and into full time jobs we ask:
With feminist like this, who needs patriarchy?

Stanford study finds delaying kindergarten 1 year reduces hyperactivity and improves attention at age 11, but Canada has for pushed earlier and longer kindergarten.

Aug 2016: Financial Post article, Exploiting women through childcare.
The Federal government is considering a $500M "child care" subsidy program in order to increase mothers' employment. Is this what women want? Does cheap daycare increase mothers' labour force participation?

Aug 2016: CBC radio interview - Vanier Institute for the Family CEO, Nora Spinks, confirms that daycare waitlists are meaningless, though the daycare lobby has used them for years to claim there is a shortage of daycare spaces, yet she pushes for a $10/day daycare system. Ms Spinks advised Statistics Canada that it should not ask for parents' preferences in child care during a consultation last year. Kids First seeks inclusion of parental preference as fundamental in family policy data in our democracy.

Oct 2015: Tycoon dragon blasts daycare: "anti family" "incentivizing parents"
Business News Network interview - Bucking the international business sector promotion of tax-subsidized daycare, Kevin O'Leary, Canadian tycoon featured on CBC TV's "Dragon's Den", took time during this interview to blast proposals for a national daycare program. He said he is most concerned about the impact on children and correctly said it "incentives" parents to not look after their own children, calling it "anti family", "unCanadian", "horrific".

Sept 21, 2015: Universal Child Care Outcomes Questioned In New Study. This study is a follow up from a previous study by the same 3 economists that was published in a top peer-reviewed journal, Political Economy, and won the 2008 Purvis Prize.
In addition to negative outcomes for kids and parents, they found increased maternal employment that produced more taxes that covered only 40% of the program costs.
The other study mentioned by Pierre Fortin in 2012 is NOT peer reviewed, even by 2015, but has been cited by CCPA etc as proof that daycare produces benefits over costs.

How Many Children can one Person Care for all Day?
Government makes ratios and group size worse. See BC Child:Staff ratio laws

All-day Kindergarten - 1 teacher for 22 kids for 6 hours

New category "multi-age child care" allowing 1 adult to 8 children: 1 child under 1 year + 2 children under 3 years, + 5 age 3 years or more

Worsened group size and ratio for daycare for K and Gr 1 and for Gr 2-7

GROUP SIZE - daycare for K and Gr 1 - up 4 from 20 to 24 per group

GROUP SIZE - Gr 2-7 daycare - up 5 from 20 to 25

RATIO - daycare for K and Gr 1` - up 2 to 12 from 10 kids per staff

RATIO - Gr 2-7 daycare - 1 staff:15 children

Unpaid Family Care Work worth $59 Billion:
Statistics Canada's 2003 report, "Unpaid informal caregiving," puts the value of Canada's unpaid family child care work at $59 billion. The child-care component of this figure includes only "primary-activity child care [which] represents about one-quarter of total time spent caring for children," and values women's work at only 77% of men's work.
Unpaid family care work has a higher value than income generated by the health, education, or finance industries.

BC Court says mums in prison can keep babies. The right to security of person includes breastfeeding and attachment. Dec 2013 Globe and Mail article: Babies can stay with jailed moms

An article about research by Quebec economists LeFebvre, Merrrigan, and Haeck discusses the impact of cheap daycare on children and paid work by mothers. Note the comments about "quality" by HELP's Goelman and Kershaw are disingenuous as they have authored research stating that the quality of daycare in Quebec is minimal and inadequate.

Nov 2014, Iowa student refuses to be weighed by school
In BC we have the "Daily Physical Activity" DPA reporting requirement which has schools requiring students to report and electronically record at least 30 minutes of physical activity per day. Just say no.
Is it the schools' business what students/families do in their off-school time? Does this requirement induce mass lying by students? Are education and government personnel required to demonstrate physical fitness as a job requirement?

Supreme Court of Canada rules birth-mothers are different than other parents. West Coast LEAF lawyer publicly congratulates and supports Kids First goal of challenging definitions of "child care" and "work" that discriminate against the work of parental child care.
Hear more about it on this CBC Radio podcast from Nov 13, 2014. Kids First President, Helen Ward, calls in at 21:44: BC Almanac interview

FULL EQUALITY FOR WOMEN: Funding for family care work embraced by economists and lawyers
"every mother is a working mother"

Kids First is working towards a human rights complaint about the definitions of "child care" and "work" that say that child care is not done by parents and is not work if it is done by parents.

This case is related as it states that parents DO have child care obligations - yet the judge mistakenly seems to seems to indicate that parental child care is not work and that work force "wish[es]" are the primary obligation...

Justice Robert M. Mainville wrote, "without reasonable accommodation for parents? childcare obligations, many parents will be impeded from fully participating in the work force so as to make for themselves the lives they are able and wish to have. The broad and liberal interpretation of human rights legislation requires an approach that favours a broad participation and inclusion in employment opportunities for those parents who wish or need to pursue such opportunities.??

Child Care Human Rights Case: Does government discriminate against parents? The federal court ruled that "child care" obligations are part of family status last year - this is being appealed. Kids First is planning a human rights complaint against government definitions of "child care" that exclude parental child care.

Oct 2010: Ontario Ministry of Education memo from Assistant Deputy Minster shows they EXPECTED "UNFUNDED COMMITMENTS" for all-day Kindergarten. What do they do? Shove more kids into too few rooms? This CALLOUS LACK OF REGARD FOR CHILDREN'S WELL-BEING means that any results for the first year or two would only get worse as more children are placed in the ever-worsening program.

"What are the consequences for the economy of several tens of thousands of women entering the Quebec labour force? More people looking for work exercises downward pressure on wages, which induces firms to employ more women.... The slower rate of
wage growth increases business profitability? .... All components of domestic income eventually benefit from the arrival of new workers."

Swedish response to Globe and Mail article praising Swedish daycare system:
Swedish daycare is VERY costly at $27,000/yr/child age 1-5 and very undemocratic. TAXES to pay for it are so high that almost no parents cannot afford to look after their own children. Taxes average 70% of income for the average city worker. Income tax of 30% starts at an income of only $3,000. VAT (GST) is 25%, and groceries are taxed at 12%. And QUALITY of care is a "problem".

May 2013, Maclean's Magazine article: Why full-day kindergarten doesn?t work.
The article highlights the lack of concern for children's well-being in the education ministries and their total refusal to accept the findings of peer reviewed research. Note: the article incorrectly states that BC has all day junior and senior K. BC has no junior K; however the original proposal from UBC's Human Early Learning Partnership was for all-day K for ages 3-5 (this would have included 2 year olds born after August).

Who is Responsible for Children? on Corus radio's April 14, 2013 Roy Green Show: Kids First President Helen Ward discusses the claim that children belong to the community "collective" and are not the "private" responsibility of their parents as described by US pundit Melissa Harris-Parry in this recent MSNBC ad

1 in 3 Canadian mothers do not receive any EI maternity/parental benefits.

In 2011, 68% of mothers with children 12 months and under received these benefits. 76.6% had insurable employment and 88% of those got benefits.
See the Statistics Canada Employment Insurance Coverage Survey, 2011

March 8, 2013 International Women's Day - UK Guardian article by Selma James, founder of Wages for Housework, and Nina Lopez of Argentina, founder of Legal Action for Women and joint co-ordinator of the Global Women's Strike: Hugo Ch?vez knew that his revolution depended on women. The authors describe Hugo Chavez's formal recognition of care work as productive work:
"[Women] work so hard raising their children, ironing, washing, preparing food ? giving [their children] an orientation ? This was never recognised as work yet it is such hard work! ... Now the revolution puts you first, you too are workers, you housewives, workers in the home."

TVO Parents Videos: In The Importance of Attachment, Gordon Neufeld explains his opposition to all-day kindergarten. He says, "the state should not be commissioned to take care of our children" and
"to hand the child over to the state: the state is only too eager to say, 'We are better for your child than you are', 'We can train our people to take care of...' but it's not about the training."

March 2012: Study published in International Journal for Equity in Health of ?gender equity? parenting (both parents spending equal amounts of time at jobs and doing child care) in Sweden finds children have more mental health problems with gender equal parents.

Kids First has earned a reputation for credibility by providing
transparent, accurate data with references. We apologize for any
inadvertent data errors or relevant omissions. We ask that you inform us
of any errors you notice. Thank you.